Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has called on the Turnbull government to immediately suspend Centrelink's controversial automated debt recovery program, describing it as a "toxic mix of incompetence and cruelty" that has ruined Christmas for vulnerable Australians.
The federal government has hit back at Labor attacks over a $4 billion welfare crackdown, rejecting claims of a Centrelink “victim” and insisting he was never targeted by the automated data-matching system at the centre of the political dispute.
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For the Turnbull government these days, ineptitude comes in many forms, success in few. One of the latest examples where its performance has baffled the dwindling number of its supporters and brought smiles to the faces of its opponents is the decision to let Centrelink's computers loose on Australia's least wealthy and most vulnerable citizens in the weeks before Christmas.
Andrew Wilkie, the independent federal MP for Denison, said last week that some people who have, over the Christmas break, received aggressive letters from Centrelink are close to suicide.
It is not surprising, and it is shameful that it is so. It is also extraordinary that politicians like Christian Porter and Alan Tudge, the Ministers responsible for Centrelink, think its OK to boast about the recovery of debts from generally low-income Australians while their government does little or nothing about the fact that some corporations and many wealthy individuals in this country pay little or no tax.
The Turnbull government’s mass invoices – constructed from data matching to claim discrepancies exist with Centrelink’s casual, disabled and vulnerable income earners – are expected to be used across the entire pensioner and social security sector. New discrepancies can be created over a recipient’s claimed asset values to substantiate invoices for ‘over-payments’.
Bundaberg welfare recipients have taken to social media in anger and confusion over the Centrelink debt debacle.
Centrelink recipients across the region are being told to pay back false debts sometimes amounting to thousands of dollars because of a faulty computer algorithm.
The Centrelink debacle that’s slugged thousands of Aussies with unfair debt is the latest in a string of disasters in which technology has let us down - with devastating consequences.
The most frightening thing about the Centrelink malware debacle is the verve with which the government embraced it.
Christmas for one South Australian high school student was ruined after Centrelink cut her payments without notice.
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"She [a Centrelink staff member] told me 15,000 other students had been cut off from the same day as me, and that broke my heart," she said.
The longer this mess drags on the more the public’s faith in a system designed to identify genuine rorters – who Human Services Minister Alan Tudge has warned face possible prison time – will be undermined.
Damaging criticism and publicity like this normally would have a minister rushing to initiate a review, or at the very least expressing regret for any (unintended) distress caused. But Mr Porter has remained his usual phlegmatic self, saying the letters sent initially to welfare recipients were "polite" and that only a "small" number of people had been asked to refund money they did not owe. He reiterated his belief that the program was working well, and said it would be extended further to recover nearly $4 billion in welfare debts over the next four years.
Labor’s leadership team of Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek pioneered the “robo-debt” data-matching system Centrelink is using to target current and former welfare recipients for apparently not declaring their income properly — but they now argue it should be suspended.
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“The automation of this process will free up resources and result in more people being referred to the tax garnishee process, retrieving more outstanding debt on behalf of taxpayers,” Mr Shorten said at the time.
Jayde Harvey, now 24, was shocked when she got a letter from Centrelink just before Christmas, asking her to clarify how much she earned when she worked part-time while in high school.
Similar letters have been sent to thousands of people across Australia in recent weeks as part of a new program to recover overpayments by linking welfare payments with records from the Australian Taxation Office.
Tony Barber survived a battle with cancer.
But now the 29-year-old has to battle a bureaucratic nightmare after receiving a Centrelink debt notice for $4500 in the lead-up to Christmas.
His is one of many complaints about the automated Centrelink system the federal government is using to claw back $4 billion in overpayments and the way the system calculates welfare recipients' debts
Labor calls for an investigation into Centrelink’s debt recovery scheme, calling it a disaster… but the government stands firm
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Tony Barber survived a battle with cancer. But now the 29-year-old has to battle a bureaucratic nightmare after receiving a Centrelink debt notice for $4500 in the lead-up to Christmas.
A Ballarat woman has been forced to hunt down five-year-old payslips over Christmas while caring for an elderly relative in order to challenge thousands of dollars she allegedly owed to Centrelink.
Ballarat MP Catherine King’s office has seen a spike in complaints in the lead up to Christmas after the government agency mobilised an automated debt recovery system, which its own employees have said is unable to take into account intermittent or casual work.
The information watchdog is assessing Centrelink's data matching system.
Centrelink has slashed the debts of two welfare recipients after they spoke out about the Federal Government's controversial $4.5 billion debt clawback program.
Ms Stilbe said she intended to the dispute the remaining debt.